Happy New Year!

I'm supposed to transform from a messy artist to a regular person..... to doll up and go to a party and meet people.... To find clothes without paint on them.....eeeeek
I don't like it....... Can't I just stay at home with my computer or my art toys?
I don't like Holidays.... I like my regular days.

Illustration Friday - Flavor

My daughter Hana (11) didn't wait for Thursday evening to do the Friday illustration (like me). This is the first time she participated.

Illustration Friday - Holiday

To show or not to show?

Oh well, not everything can turn out the way I want it....
Thursday evening.... almost didn't make it.
Not my favorite piece....
I wish I had more time.
I wanted to use the words that speak to me:

"The holiest of all holidays are those
kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
secret anniversaries of the heart."

A stack of new journals

I have a new, lovely red, organized handbag... Why is that important? Because 'she' (the bag) NEEDED a journal... and I had to make it. I like to write, sketch, draw, play whenever I'm waiting for my daughter to finish her activities. While I was thinking about a journal for my new bag, I decided to create a line of "Journals with a secret".
They are fun! They look like ordinary blank journals, but they have a secret.... If you remove the spine there is another side exposed... right there to write secrets.... or just everyday things. I used a heavy duty Bristol paper so that I can do whatever I want in it (draw, collage, even paint). Prints of my collages are on the covers.

They are for sale in my etsy shop.

Street art

Not my art, but something that cheers me up whenever I drive by it; especially when it's a gray, rainy day...like today.

Paper doll card

Today I have grown
From walking with the trees. I love trees... so it was kind of appropriate to use
a "vintage" photo of myself for this card.

It is in my store on Etsy.com (here). I think of it more of a gallery than store, and seem to be putting there things that I'm not too eager to sell. Sounds weird, doesn't it? I do want to sell, but I'm just not ready to part with some things so I don't list them on eBay immediately (where they usually sell fast).

A masterpiece in progress...

My favorite, adorable, talented, funny girl is 11 today!
Happy birthday Hana!

Artist's journal

I just finished creating this journal... I cut the pages, painted the cover and used a "variation of a long stitch" from Keith Smith's book to bind it.
I often tuck little things (drawings, photos...) in books that I'm reading. It is so fun to find a surprise months later when I use them again... I found my lovely, lacy skeleton leafs in Keith's book... and remembered the day my daughter found them in the park. I'm sure that they'll find a way into one of my collages soon...

Illustration Friday - Imagine

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?

ACEO Theme Week - "Winter Wonderland"

Search for ACEO Theme Week on eBay to see more “Winter Wonderland” ACEO's by many talented artists. To see more pictures of my cards click here and here.
They were fun to create - white, sparkly and fluffy.

Leave your trail....... Wish for good.....

I've been working on my super secret swap project. To keep myself busy while the glue/paint dries I made two cards. First one has collaged everything - a found squished bottle cap, palm bark, glitter, wire... (I'm not happy with the photo, but it's even worse when scanned.)
The second card is a beeswax collage. I thought that the qualities of beeswax are very appropriate for the subject.

Nature's Faces cards

Two new cards - transparencies, dried plant material,
paint, crystals, mica flakes....

Click here and here to se more pictures on eBay.

Time to show one of my best art creations - an altered baby.
My baby son has grown into a wonderful young man.
Happy 19th birthday!

Illustration Friday - Surprise

This maiden found a golden egg..... Imagine her surprise when the egg cracked and butterflies emerged from it. It doesn't show on her face - but she was really, really surprised....

This is an 'Art Squared' piece (4" x 4"). I used real eggshells on the "egg" because I love the mosaic-y feel they give. And - I used some of the lovely papers and fibers that I got from Annax.

A bowl of painted ornaments....

THANK YOU ANNA!!!!!!!

She's mine! All mine!!!
The lovely package from Just AnnaX came yesterday. It traveled only 4 days from England to California! I couldn't believe it! And inside.... oooh, all the lovely things! First of all - the beautiful 'Wicked Elf'. I absolutely adore her!

A music CD! I was staring at the CD cover for the longest time, before I even thought of playing the CD.....
And all the great stuff mixed media artists crave.... I will enjoy playing with them for a long time.
Speaking of cravings.... I was seriously debating whether to share the Belgium chocolates with my chocolate-holic daughter or hide them and selfishly enjoy one by one..... Of course, the Mom in me was lauder so Hana & I shared them (not all... there are some left). Delicious!

This was my first mail swap and I feel very lucky! Thank you Anna! Your package is not ready yet, but very soon.....

Wild hair...

I had a haircut yesterday and nobody noticed. I wonder why? Maybe because I like my hair wild and unruly.... and I don't want anybody to see that it's trimmed nicely. Anyway.... I felt like creating something with wild hair, so this is what came out.

4" x 4", mixed media painting on watercolor paper.

You can see more pictures if you click !!!here!!!

!!!New Transparency Tags!!!

New set of transparency tags! They have a bid on eBay already, but I have them ready to go on my website (shhhh - don't tell anyone - they are the same price without bidding :-)).
www.ZoranaLand.com

Free shipping for the first buyer!

A new ACEO - Wise Old Owl.

I started doing something with the back sides of my ACEOs. I don't have a good reason for it, except that I like when they look interesting from both sides. Of course, I add the title, my name, date, mediums.... on the back side.

Click here to bid.

Illustration Friday - Blue

Fragmented
Illustration Friday is a weekly illustration challenge. A topic is posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation.

Mixed media acrylic painting on 11"x14" stretched canvas. Silhouette is painted, sand mixed with acrylic is used for the heart, and real eggshells for the "fragments".

I need a Music Muse.......

8" x 10" canvas mixed media, collage painting.

I just started to play the piano again after many years and I'm not good as I thought I would be (wonder why?). That's where the inspiration for this canvas came from....

My blog has a first comment! That is so exciting! Thanks Annax... Let's see if I know how to put a link to your blog.

I stayed with the same color scheme and texture, but with formats that I'm used to. Here is a new ACEO:


and a new art squared (4x4):



I received the best compliment this evening. My DH is always very supportive of my work, but his comment on these last pieces was... overwhelming. He said: "They (my art pieces) are finally starting to look like you - powerful and beautiful". Wasn't that a great compliment?

Texture

I tried something new. It is not easy for me to create without faces and words, but I tried. There is an article by Kim Grant in the winter "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" where she describes the process she uses to create her textured mixed media paintings. This is my interpretation.

I is for inspiration

I am trying to work on a larger scale than the one I'm used to. The little format of ACEOs is non-threatening. Art squared (4x4) was a big step for me. This one is the largest collage I ever made - it is 5.5" x 8.5". There is some journaling, painting, collaging, stamping... the words say searching for, looking for, fishing for....... Inspiration. There is more text, scratched words and little hidden thoughts.

I often wonder do people try to notice little things that artists put in their work. It is fun when you can combine things... like I used Goethe's words "Boldness has power, genius, magic in it"... and found a little piece from a vintage book with the word magic and made a hat for the bird.

YAY!!!

As soon as I wrote it - the problem was gone! If only my other problems can be solved that way... The big problem now is that my website is graphic heavy and that comcast (my host) is unbelievably slow.... It's no fun waiting for pictures to show up.

In hidding

Good... I managed to hide the blog link on my website. I want to try it out but I don't want everyone to see it, so this is a good option. I can't change the html that shows under my picture... I wonder why.... it doesn't show on the page where I can edit it. Silly things like that irritate me.

Testing the grounds

Let me start by admitting that I have no idea what I'm doing... I have been hooked on reading blogs for a while now. I guess I wanted to be a part of it... Right now I'm not sure what my user name is, what the name that shows is, what the blog name is... I just kind of typed similar names for all, and hopefully I'll be able to change it when I figure it out.

Also, I have no idea how people find blogs and do they really read them. I'll pretend that I'm alone in the cyber space and write when I feel like it. I can always delete it, right?